It is now harvesting time again and the fields and roads are awash with combines and tractors and trailers gathering in the harvest.
The issue is that the said tractor and trailer drivers operate under a different set of rules whilst transporting bales of hay/straw than if they were carried on a lorry.
As a lorry driver I have both a legal and a moral obligation to ensure that my load is secure and that bits of it are not blowing off the trailer and clogging up the drains and gullies. In addition, if large parts of my load fell off then I would be liable to prosecution. These rules do not apply to the drivers of tractors. One or two straps for a forty bale load seems to be quite adequate.
Yesterday I noted two bales of hay lying at the side of the road at a roundabout and no doubt next month, when the sugar beet campaign starts we will have to endure six months of sugar beet and mud littering our highways.